Providing information, education, and training to build knowledge, develop skills, and change attitudes that will lead to increased independence, productivity, self determination, integration and inclusion (IPSII) for people with developmental disabilities and their families.

DUBLIN, IRELAND--There are about 330
people with intellectual disabilities housed in Ireland's psychiatric
hospitals.

Officials say that 307 of them have no mental illness, and should be
living elsewhere.

According to a brief article in the Irish Examiner, 218 of the residents
with intellectual disabilities are housed at one facility.

Deirdre Carroll, general secretary for the National Association for the
Mentally Handicapped of Ireland said her organization is urging the Department
of Health to create separate housing for these people.

"The people I am talking about are living in awful circumstances and
they shouldn't be," she said. "These people are not mentally ill and should be
in appropriate housing, based in the community or in smaller units rather than
in big psychiatric hospitals."

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said the 307 have had an
alternative residential facility "identified" for them. The others, she said,
require day services, residential support services, or increased support within
a psychiatric hospital.

The spokesperson added that a relocation program has been underway for
many years. Five institution residents have been moved out recently under the
program and 28 more are expected to move to "more appropriate facilities" by
the end of this year.

Officials are reviewing Ireland's National Disability Strategy and
Disability Bill, which was published last week, to determine how they might
affect people with intellectual disabilities in psychiatric hospitals.

The GCDD is funded under the provisions of P.L. 106-402. The federal law also provides funding to the Minnesota Disability Law Center,the state Protection and Advocacy System, and to the Institute on Community Integration, the state University Center for Excellence. The Minnesota network of programs works to increase the IPSII of people with developmental disabilities and families into community life.